Eyebrows were raised on Tuesday when Liverpool’s official website published a list of the 17 Reds players who are away on international duty this week, and Mohamed Salah wasn’t on it.
But in truth it has been known that Salah would be skipping this international break with Egypt since the beginning of last month.
In a boost to Liverpool’s Premier League and Champions League hopes, it was agreed that Salah would miss his side’s Africa Nations Cup qualifier against Niger on Saturday and the friendly with Nigeria next Tuesday as coach Javier Aguirre wants to use the matches to blood younger players.
Egyptian FA vice-president Ahmed Shobier told KingFut last month: “Mohamed Salah will not play the Niger game in the AFCON qualifiers or the Nigeria friendly.
“Ahmed Hegazi will probably also be left out of the squad.”
The West Bromwich Albion defender is indeed absent from the 25-man party, as is Aston Villa’s Ahmed Elmohamady.
The 17 Reds players who are away with their countries’ respective age groups include England’s Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jordan Henderson.
Virgil van Dijk and Georginio Wijnaldum are with the Dutch team, Simon Mignolet and Divock Origi are with Belgium and Alisson, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino are with Brazil for their friendlies with Panama (in Portugal) and the Czech Republic.
In-form Sadio Mane is with Senegal ahead of a qualifier with Madagascar and friendly against Mali, Dejan Lovren is with Croatia and Andy Robertson is joining up with the Scotland squad despite a dental complaint.
Ben Woodburn is also with the senior Wales team, although Xherdan Shaqiri has pulled out of the Switzerland squad through injury .